In railway-cars



Patented J111y 4,` 1865.

WIS. HALL..`

Vim lum-1| l *RAILWAY CAB.

`to be operated by foot. Itis Well knownthat upon horse-railways Ifnuch injury occurs to horses in overcoming 4 theinertia in starting the car from a state ot'4 rest, on account ot' the sudden and abrupt strain.. 'Various methods .have ,been.dcrised. `for ,obviatingthis diiiiculty, such as the use AUNITED STATES PATENT. OFFICE.

y WM. 'simu HALL, 0F QUINonMAssAoHUsETTs.-

` IMPROVEMENT I N 'RAILWAY-CARS.

specification arming part' 0f Lettrg'iit Ng. 48,553. dated Juiy`4,1sc5.

To all whom itmay concern: Be it knownthat I, WILLIAM SMITH HALL,

-of Quincy, in the county of Norfolk and Stat-e of Massachusetts, have invented certain new 'and useful Improvements in Railway-Gars; and

I do'hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawings whichlaccompanying and form part'of this' specification, is a description of my'invntion suliicient to enable those skilled inthe art to practice it.

i This invention relates to a methodof starting and propelling railwayfcars, and to the combination therewith of a brake mechanism of the power exerted by a-spring coiled around the axle by the momentum of4 the running car, the attachment of the pole of the car to ratchet mechanism operating upon one or more of the wheels, and the employment of a ratchet mechanism to be operatedfrom the platform of the car. This last 4method has been practiced or proposed for use upon horse railway cars, fand also upon steam-cars,I and y part of my invention relates more particularly to a peculiar mechanism tov be operated from the platform ot' a horse or steam railway-car, to assist in starting and in propelling the same. Mymethod has advantages over these mentioned both, in its greater simplicity and effectiveness, and from its capability of being op,- erated continuously to impel the car forward,

Vinstead of beingconiined to a. limited extent of -movementof the pole-or to thelimited power of a spring and from its equal applicability to the trucks of steam and horse railway-cars.

Y Figure 1 of 4the drawings represents a side elevation of a car-truck, showing my invention embodied thereon.. Fig. 2 is an endelevation thereof. One of the wheels of. the 'axle to which the ratchet mechanism is applied is removed to show the partslbeyond. `denotesthetruckfframe;'b, the axles; c, the wheels; d, aratchet fixed to one of the axles.

This axle also bears a rocker segmentlever, e,

which turns loosely upon it, and is kept from sliding laterally upon the axle in 'any conven- J ient manners'`4 yung upon this segmentand engaging with 'fthe ratchet at proper. times is apawl, j", and to the periphery of the segment one end of a chain,g, is fastened, the other end being attached to the bottom of a cone- *pul1ey, h, onl the foot of a vertical shaft, ,p

which has-a crank at its upper end, as seen'in Fig. 1. The segment-lever is held normally in position, as seen iu Fig. 1,-by a spring, k, having one en d connected tothe truck and the other end attached to the segmentV by a chain or otherwise, and when in this postion'theiml peiling-tooth of `the pawl is held out of engagement with the ratchet,i this being effected'by an extension of the pawl (which carries' a fr-icvtion-roll, l) and a projection, m, against which the roll bears. Th'tcoth of the pawl is pressed down toward and against vthe ratchet byu..

..spring, n, as will be readily nud'erstood.;A l.

' Whenit'i's 'desired to start the car the crank `is turned, winding thechain on thepnlley h, .Y

turning the segment e, the first effect of which is to draw the friction-roll l away from vthe projection m, when its sprl-n g n engages thetooth groove issuchas to obtain the best possible i disposition of the' mechanism for exertion of the power necessary to start the car, the power being exerted through the chain upon'a lever, (formed by the periphery and sides of the, segment, the axle being `the fulcrum,) the chain drawing tangentially upon the lever during its entire' forward movement.

It will also be obvious vthat by the employ'- 1 ment ot' the chain instead of a rigid lever or Vbar to operate the pawl, this mechanism can be applied to'steam railway-cars in which the movement ofthe car body and truck with're,

lation .to each other renders it impossible to4 employ such bars, rods, or levers to 4commu- 2 'l j 45,553l

nicate powervIrom the platform to the ratchet mechanism.

In connection .with this mechanism I employ brake apparatus arranged and constructed to be operated by foot, as follows: A o o denote the brake-shoes, havingcylindrica'l bearing-surfaces andbeing so hung as to swivel upon joint-pins, having bearings in the cross-bar p, which is hung orsuspended from. the truck a-by springs :n in such manneras to becapable ot' movement toward and away from the wheels. the center of this cross-bar by a strap which yencompasses the bar, and the plate is pressed -for ward by a lever, r, hunger in a post, s, de-

pending from the bottom ot' the truck a. The short arm ofthe lever acts against an incline,

I' t', on the plate q, while the long arm extends `foot-piece, e. The springs .r hold thev shoesl away from the tread or peripheryof the wheels while the car is running, as seen in Fig, Il.

lWhen it is wished to stop the car the driver,

withoutfreleasing the reins, depresses the foot-f pi'ece c and with it the long arm of the lever 1',"

the shortarm of which acts upon the incline t, pressing forward the plate qand bar p, causing the shoes to impinge against the wheel-pe- `r ipheries. l 'Io avoid unequal wear of these shoes 4they are so hung as to swivel, by which construction it will be obvious-that the whole ,stirface Vot' the shoes is caused to impinge with uniform stress upon the wheels'.

To enable the shoes to bepressed with thel` same force against the wheels as they become worn, the bearing-plate-q is applied to thebar .by means of adjusting-screws y and a spring, z. 'lliis spring serves to hold the plate up against or toward the bar, while by means of the screws Vthe bearing-surface ot' the plate isfed outward from the bar p as the shoes are Worn, so that `lthe sameV depression of the lever r may eli'ect the same degree of impingcment of' the shoes A bearing-plate, q, is applied tov upon-the wheels.. A spring-catch, j, serves t0 keep. the 4foot-piece 'v and lever fr depressed, and the brakes upon the'wheels, when necessary, this catch springing over the foot-piece 'when it is depressed to or nearly to its extent of movement, and being released thereform by lateral pressure on its top or by 1side movement of the foot, as will be readily understood. It is often desirable upon horse-cars (as when 'stoppin g upon upgrades) to combine the move- :ment of the brake mechanism and the starting umechanism.

Thus, when the car has been stopped upon an upgrade bythe brake, the driver can simultaneously release the foot-piece n and turn the crank upon the top of the shaft @by which the ratchet mechanism isoperated and the retrograde movement of the car prevented, the strength ofthe horses being in such e case made 'more easily and much lessfinjuriously available than when they have to overcome the inertia ot' the car from astate of rest., and oftentimes have even to'over'come the retrograde movement.

I do not claim the employment of a ratchet p mechanism to start a car, nor operating such mechanism from the platform of the car.' neither do I claim the use of rods or levers eX- tending lengthwise of the car for actnatin g the ratchet, as such would not answer the purpose of my invention.

1. The employment of the ratchet mechanism, when operated to start the car, by a chain winding upon a crank-shaftor pulley, substantially as set i'orth.

2,. Clhe'method of disengaging the pawl from the ratchet, substantially as shown.

,3. Combining with the starting apparatus a brake mechanism operated by foot, substain tially as shown and described.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set-my hand'this25th. day of March, A. D. 1865.

. WILLIAM SMITH HALL. Witnesses: y

J. B. CROSBY, 

